1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of mounting a skirt to be mounted on the peripheral edge of an air cushion vehicle body at the vehicle body in an air cushion vehicle (trade name, Hovercraft).
2. Prior Art
The skirts of air cushion vehicles are generally classified into an annular skirt formed integrally as a whole, and split skirts divided into a number of skirt portions.
Any of these skirts is formed with an air cushion chamber upon reception of part of air stream generated by a driving fan. Thus, the skirt must be rigidly mounted on an air cushion vehicle body. A conventional method employs the steps of superposing the opening peripheral edge mounting portion of the skirt on the mounting portion of the air cushion vehicle body, retaining the top of the mounting portion by a retaining plate, and rigidly fastening the skirt with rivets or the like.
Since the skirt of the air cushion vehicle is swelled toward the lower peripheral edge of the air cushion vehicle body, the skirt tends to contact a foreign matter during its traveling and is easily damaged due to the engagement with the foreign matter. Thus, it is frequently necessary to repair or replace the skirt of the air cushion vehicle, and the skirt must be dismounted and mounted at every time. However, the easiness of dismounting and mounting the skirt is lacked according to the conventional method of fastening the skirt with the rivets.